Overcome
by MoonNRoses
Summary: After an incident between Madge and Gale in the elevator, Peeta and Katniss take matters into their own hands to get their friends to get along... They just didn't expect the results! Mature one-shot.


_**Warning:**_ _**There are mature warnings on this piece for a reason. Ye have been warned!**_

**Author's Note:** _Hello all! I know I've taken a hiatus from writing, and I'm really sorry about it… There's been a lot going on and the motivation has been sucked out of me until just recently. The inspiration behind this little gem is in thanks to a conversation between _**Medea Smyke**_ and me. It all started when we wondered just what Gale would look like while wearing a pair of glasses…_

Gale slid the glasses off his face and pinched the bridge of his nose as various soldiers, politicians and God only knew who else filed out of the conference room. He hated talking so much and pointing out objectives on the missions and what not. It wasn't his style. He was a doer, not a talker. But this, apparently, was part of being a soldier in the Mockingjay Army. For all his talks in the woods with Katniss long before her first Hunger Games when he dreamed of fighting the government, revolution had its moments in which it just plain sucked.

That's how he found out about his sight problems. All the paperwork that had to be filled out, filed, read over and over and over again gave him headaches. It wasn't just because it was a pain in the neck to fill it all out and read. He was what they called farsighted. Shooting an enemy or a very delicious deer yards out was no problem. Put words right in front of his face and they all grew fuzzy. He slid his fingers through his short black hair and tried to make out the words on the file in front of him. _Fuzzy letters. Ugh._ With a sigh he rubbed his chin and realized he hadn't shaved since they left for the mission. As soon as they got back from the mission, they ensconced the team with the bureaucrats in this conference room where they had to pick everything apart. It didn't seem to matter to them that they lost people. His gray eyes narrowed when he thought of what Coin called them: _resources._ If he was honest with himself, and Gale prided himself with his honesty, he would admit he didn't like that woman. She seemed to be cut from the same mold as Snow himself. One crazy and cold president for another didn't seem like such a good trade.

_One battle at a time, Hawthorne_, he thought grimly. He slid the glasses back on his face as he looked over the file in front of him outlining their next mission. He forcefully closed the file and decided to not look at the file again until Monday. By all that was good in this world, which isn't much in today's world, he was not going to think about missions for the next three days. He gathered everything up and wearily left the room. Outside in the corridor, soldiers in black uniforms, paper pushers in black uniforms and bureaucrats in black walked quickly from one office to another with yet more papers, more Intel and more missions. A muscle started to tick in his jaw as he ground his teeth together and hurried to the elevator with long, determined strides. Luckily, the elevator was completely free when he punched the button for level 7. The doors shut and the car moved away from the politics of war. He already felt lighter.

His luck, however, didn't hold. His peaceful ride down to 7 was interrupted on level 2 as the doors opened and none other than Madge Undersee, the privileged daughter of the District 12 mayor, stepped on. Well, not so privileged anymore. As he understood it, she had been working in the infirmary since they arrived in District 13 five years ago. She looked good, he observed. She was wearing blue scrubs that actually brought out the periwinkle of her eyes. Her long blond hair was twisted up in some kind of complicated knot with loads of pins. She was looking down at some papers in her hands and looked up as she pressed the button for her level, 9, to see who was in the elevator with her. Her eyes went wide with surprise as she stared at him. Before, when she was looking at the paper, there had been a slight frown marking her brow. Now, there was wonder and as he stared back, her eyes darkened with… desire? Suddenly, she was looking like she had been locked in the bowels of the Capitol for the past ten years with no one but Johanna Mason as company and he was the first male she had seen. Her tongue flicked out to wet her full pink lips and all thoughts of the files in his hands, missions and anything else fled his mind.

He moved towards her as time seemed to slow to a standstill. His hands, somehow free of the files they were holding, moved to her hair and dived into the golden threads. Pins scattered to the floor. She looked up at him as if he were the hero of a hundred different Hunger Games and just as many wars. As if he were an angel and a god rolled all into one. Her hands gripped his wrists and her mouth opened just slightly. Gale was fascinated and bent his frame so he could taste those soft lips. One taste and he was lost.

Gale kissed Madge slowly at first, as if asking for permission. When he felt her shiver beneath his hands and move closer, he crushed her to him. He felt rather than heard the moan that came from deep within her throat and into him. She kissed him as if she had been dying and just had a new lease on life. With a groan, Gale hitched her up and pinned her against the wall of the elevator. His hands moved over her and down to her cute little derriere. He groaned again when she wrapped her legs around him. He was a man starving and she was the only thing he wanted to beat the hunger. Her fingers tunneled through his hair and pulled.

He was so wrapped up in her, within her arms, within her scent, that he didn't feel the car stop moving, didn't hear the ding of the doors opening or the first shocked, "Ahem." But the second, more forceful sound of a throat clearing pulled him from the haze of primal lust. When his vision cleared, Madge was before him, breathing heavily. Her lips were swollen from his kisses and her eyes were wide with desire. He wanted to go right on kissing her but he heard the forceful throat clearing again. Slowly he turned his head and saw Peeta Mellark staring in amused surprise. Gale should have figured his luck would have had to run away and Mellark was just the cherry on the topping of the let's-take-all-joy-out-of-Gale's-life day.

"Peeta?" Madge asked in a hoarse whisper.

"Go away, Mellark," Gale growled and turned to look back at Madge. But she no longer looked like a sex starved woman with him on the menu. Oh no. Now she looked like a woman on a mission to smite him.

"Put me down," she said behind clenched teeth. He stepped back a step and her legs slid from around his waist. With as much dignity as she could muster, she grabbed her bag that had fallen to the floor. "I have never, in all of my life, been treated so… _disrespectfully,_" she threw out the last word as if it were slime covered rot.

"Excuse me, sweetheart," Gale drawled out as his temper rose. "I never do anything to the unwilling. You asked for it."

Her gasp echoed across the elevator and into the hall. Then she did something that surprised all three of them. She slapped Gale so hard his head rocked back with the force of it. "Don't ever come near me again," she said in a voice so cold, she could have frozen the first three tiers of hell. Then on a swift turn of her heel that caused her hair to slap Gale in the face, she stalked out of the elevator. She sailed right past Peeta and didn't speak one word.

"Ummm, Madge?" Peeta called out. She paused but did not turn. "Weren't you supposed to get off on level 9?" At that she ran for the stairs and slammed through the door. Then Peeta turned to Gale with his eyebrows raised in question.

Gale ran his shaking, _yes, damn it, shaking_, hands through his hair. "I didn't accost her, she was completely willing, I don't know what happened and don't ask me." Peeta hummed under his breath and rocked back on his heels as Gale bent to pick up his files. He found several of her hair pins on the floor and picked up one to shove in his pocket. "Not a word, Mellark," he bit out as he stalked out of the elevator. Peeta heard Gale mutter, "Hell's teeth," before he unlocked and slammed the door to his apartment.

The elevator doors closed without Peeta getting on. He laughed and then he groaned. "I wish I could tear my eyes out with a spoon," he muttered as he turned to head back to his apartment. He _HAD_ to tell Katniss. If he had to entertain what he just saw in his mind, by God, he would not suffer through it alone.

111111

Madge slammed the door of her apartment with so much force, that it caused some of the paintings that Peeta and Katniss had given her as gifts to shake dangerously. "The nerve, the… the… the…" she sputtered as she threw her bag across the room. She couldn't even form coherent words. All she could think of was of his lips pressed against hers. Her shaking hand touched her lips and closed her eyes for a moment. Okay, okay, well… to be honest, he was looking so… Again, her mind couldn't form the words. She had been looking at her schedule for the next week, which did not have a day off, when she looked up and saw Gale Hawthorne staring at her. His glasses framed his storm gray eyes and he had a few days' worth of black stubble on his face. His hair was unruly and he had the distinctly disheveled scholarly look. She had thought she had seen all the different sides of Gale Hawthorne. She had trained herself to not react when she saw his ruggedly handsome and lanky form in the corridors.

But the glasses threw her off. And somehow, his radar just knew it and he swooped down on her weakness and just gobbled her up. Her heart was still pounding. She didn't mean to slap him, she really didn't. But his drawling retort of her asking for it! Oh, it infuriated her more than… more than… She didn't know. She slid slowly to the floor to pick up her bag. _Oh no!_ She had dinner with the Mellarks tonight! Peeta and Katniss were expecting her. How could she ever face Peeta again?

She groaned loudly and hugged her bag to her. What was she going to do? Then her phone started to ring. Its tone pierced the silence of her apartment insistently. She didn't want to pick it up. She was afraid of who was on the other line. But it could be about any number of things, including, work. Work would be something grand to fall into. Slowly, she got up and answered the phone, "Hello?"

"Oh, umm… hello, Madge," Katniss Mellark said from the other end.

Madge wanted to die. "Hello, Katniss," she answered warily.

"I was just calling to make sure you were still coming to dinner tonight," Katniss bit out. She seemed uncomfortable. Did Peeta already tell her about the incident? _Oh, God!_

"Ummm, no, I'm really not feeling well tonight," Madge muttered softly.

"Come to dinner," Katniss forcefully insisted. "We have something new we want to share with you and… just come to dinner, Madge. It's important."

Madge closed her eyes. It was Katniss's stubborn voice. Nothing ever got by Katniss when she was stubborn. "Yes…. I'll be there."

"Good," Katniss said before hanging up. Then, Madge slowly lowered the phone back to the cradle. A look of horror crossed her face. _What if Gale showed up?_

_11111  
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Madge slowly walked down the halls of Level 7. She avoided the elevator at all costs and had come via the stairs. Luckily, she didn't have to cross by Gale's apartment. Please, please, please don't let him be here, she prayed and raised her hand to knock softly. The door opened to Peeta. Madge felt the blush start at her toes and go to the roots of her hair. There seemed to be a bit of a flush on his face as well, but he smiled and motioned for her to come in. Madge straightened her back and stepped into the apartment. It was a bit bigger than her own one bedroom on level 9 and filled to bursting with paintings on the walls, easels and stacked up against the walls. There were also all kinds of baked goods on the counters. Katniss was standing in the kitchen and shoveling something in her mouth. There was no indication that there was anyone else around.

Madge felt some of the tension drain from her shoulders as she walked into the kitchen and leaned against the counter. "Cheese buns?" she asked with a smile.

Katniss grinned. "They are just so good. If I didn't get regular exercise by going outside and hunting, I would be as big as all of District 13 by now."

"And I would still love you," Peeta said with his eyes soft on Katniss.

Katniss blushed but didn't say anything else. "Come on," she said to Madge as she grabbed the blonde's arm and led her down the hall. "I have to show you something."

Madge couldn't help but be swept along. "What is it?" Madge asked when Katniss jerked to a stop outside their second bedroom.

"You'll see," she said cryptically and pushed Madge into the dark room. At first, Madge couldn't see anything. She turned to see Katniss and Peeta outlined in the light of the hallway. "You will stay in here until you work it out. I can't have my friends fighting too," Katniss said and then shut the door.

Madge heard the door lock from the other side. "What the hell?" she asked. She went to the door and tried to open it but it was locked. She gripped the doorknob and pulled several times. It didn't budge. "Katniss! Peeta!" she cried out.

"It's no use," someone growled in the dark. Madge gasped as she stood frozen, her hand still on the knob. Cold froze her on the inside. "They're leaving for dinner and won't be back for several hours," the voice went on. "We're locked in here until they get back."

Her eyes closed in misery. Gale Hawthorne was locked in a dark room with her.

"Hello, Madge," he said slowly with wry humor. "Fancy being closed in with you again."

Her forehead lowered to the door. "I'm sorry for slapping you," she said softly.

She heard a shuffling as he moved in the room. Next thing she knew, he was standing behind her. She didn't know how she knew, but she could sense him less than an inch behind her. His breath tickled the hair on the back of her head. "Is that right?" he asked dangerously. "You didn't look very sorry when you did it."

"Well, I wasn't then!" she snapped out. "Why do you have to stand right behind me, Gale?" she bit out.

He chuckled and the sound sent shivers up her spine. Oh why couldn't she be immune to him? "Because it makes you uncomfortable, Madge Undersee. And you make me uncomfortable. No reason why you shouldn't be too."

"Why did they do this to us?" she asked feebly.

He didn't answer her. For a while it was just the two of them breathing in the room, not moving. She swore her heart beat could be heard across all of Panem. "Were you not willing?" he finally asked.

"I…" she tried to work her suddenly dry throat. "I…" No… she still couldn't answer him.

"Madge?" her name was a whisper on his lips.

She turned, her back against the door, her eyes adjusting to the dark and saw his shape standing before her. "Please, stop me now if you don't want this," he whispered, his breath against her cheek. Then his mouth was on hers.

_I do not want this, I do not want this, I…. oh_… Her brain simply shut down as Gale's lips played gently with hers. His lips were surprisingly soft and teased hers apart. Her breath came out in a strangled sigh and he gently nipped her lips. "Please stop me, Madge," he whispered in a voice so guttural, it made her knees weak. "I shouldn't want you this much. I haven't been able to think of anything, ANYTHING, else since I last saw you."

"Gale," her voice came out in a moan. What was she going to do? She had always dreamed of Gale like this but she never thought it would come true. And here they were in a dark room, completely alone and without anything to interrupt them. His hands fisted on the door behind her and his mouth hovered just above hers. Adrenaline was rushing through her blood and making her heart loud in her ears but she could still hear his labored breath and feel it on her face. "Please," she asked not knowing what she was asking for.

"Please, what?" he asked as he lightly nipped at her lower lip. "Just tell me," he told her.

But she couldn't. She couldn't form words. Her body took over and her hands reached up, fingers tunneling in his short hair and she pulled his head down to hers so that his mouth crushed hers. She wasn't going to think. Obviously this was the right action because his hands came down and lifted her up against him with her feet leaving the floor. That was okay, she couldn't stand anymore on her own anyway. She was engulfed in Gale. His mouth moved from hers and down her throat with his teeth lightly scraping her skin. She felt the cold press of his glasses against her skin and the stubble on his jaw. She shivered as his lips closed over the pulse in the base of her neck. He backed up and sat in a chair making her straddle over him. "God, Madge, I could eat you alive," he told her darkly. It thrilled her.

His hands moved through her hair and kept her head still as his mouth moved up to devastate hers again. Tongues, teeth, lips clattered together in a battle of pleasure that her straining to get closer to him. "Gale," she moaned.

He went still. "Say it again," he said as his hands moved down her back to rest just under the edge of her sweater.

She swallowed her giddiness as she whispered simply, "Gale."

His calloused hands swept under her sweater and up the skin of her back. She had never, ever, felt anything so delicious. Her head fell back and her long hair swept his knees as he kneaded her back. His teeth fastened on her neck again and she rocked against him. "Hell's teeth," he swore and then he dragged her sweater and camisole over her head. The cold air hit her fevered skin and caused goose bumps to form. But then his warm hands were hot on her skin again and his mouth was feverishly working down her collarbone. Her hands wound their way in his hair and she held on for dear life as he devoured her. When his mouth closed over her breast, she moaned loudly. His fingers dug into her skin in response.

Never had he been with a woman who responded so passionately. Her skin was like honey and silk in his hands and he just couldn't get enough. He suckled one breast and then moved to the other. She moved against him until he couldn't take much more. He stood up, and as he did so she automatically locked her legs around his waist causing an amazing amount of friction between them. He pressed her against the wall and slowly, her legs fell to the floor. He stood away from her for just a moment as he removed his shirt. He just ripped it open, buttons going everywhere and the sound made Madge laugh nervously. Then he removed his pants and shoes. She gulped as she heard his belt hit the ground with his pants. Next thing she knew his fingers were lightly playing with the waistband of her sensible slacks. "Tell me to stop," he told her. His voice husky with desire for… _her_.

She had played it safe ever since coming to District 13. She kept her emotional distance from everyone but her father, Peeta and Katniss. She didn't do anything without thinking it through in minute detail. But this time, she was going to not think. "Gale," she whispered as her hands came to rest on his. "Don't you dare," she continued slowly, "stop." His breath shuddered out and he made quick work of her pants and undergarments. Then he pressed himself against her and everywhere his skin touched hers she was set on fire. She must have been dead before now because she felt so _alive_.

His mouth came back down to hers and she kissed him with everything she had. Her arms wound around his neck and his wrapped around her to lift her up against him. Their bodies fit perfectly against one another. She felt the crispness of the light covering of hair on his chest, their hearts pounding against one another, and the delicious heat of their bodies against one another. He padded over to the single twin sized bed in the room and laid her down softly upon it. He knelt between her thighs and kissed his way from her stomach to her lips as he settled over her.

She arched up to meet him, her chest crushing to his and opened her mouth for his. Fingers of one hand fisted in her air as he held her to him and the other hand ran slowly down her breast, her waist and to the outside of her thigh. She raised the other knee up to cup his body with hers. His hand went from the outside of her thigh to gently trace his fingers around to the inside and up… Her nails dug into his shoulders as his fingers found her and she let out a slow, guttural moan with her head falling back against the pillow.

Without another word, Gale pushed himself inside her and they both stilled. Nothing had ever felt so wonderful to either of them. His forehead dropped to hers as he said wonderingly, "Madge." Tears gathered in her eyes as he moved slowly within her. It was a beautifully slow and simple rhythm. He gathered her to him and kissed her sweetly as they moved in tandem as if they had always moved with one another in just this way. The pressure built inside her, inside him until they were both so full of one another that they could go no further.

In the dark, Madge listened to the crazy beating of their hearts in the silent room. She was completely cocooned in Gale with his leg thrown lazily over one of hers and his arms around her. "Stop thinking, Madge," his amused voice said softly.

How could she not? This was so _unlike _her. And would this be a one-time thing? Oh God, what if she wasn't good enough? His arms tightened around her and he nuzzled against her neck. "I told you to stop thinking," he whispered against her ear and she felt the warm tug south of her navel again. He gently nipped her ear with his teeth and her breath came out in strangled gasp. He chuckled. "So I guess this changes things for you and me, Madge."

Her eyes closed. Here it was. This is where he told her so long. "What do you mean, Gale?" Even to her own ears, she sounded slightly scared.

His arms left her for just a moment and he flicked on the bedside light. She blinked a couple of times to adjust to the sudden light and saw their clothes in rumpled piles on the floor, buttons blinking in the light scattered across the carpet and Peeta's paintings of fire throughout the room, some of which looked to have been knocked on the floor. When _did_ that happen? Then Gale's fingers took hold of her chin and forced her gaze to his. His beautiful gray eyes were still magnified behind those glasses. He was so _beautiful_. She couldn't help the sigh that escaped her as she saw their limbs wrapped around each other, her pale skin contrasting so with his tanned frame. "I mean this changes things for me, Madge. There is no going back."

She blinked her blue eyes a few times as his words sank in. Then she smiled. "Meaning?" she asked.

He smiled back. "Meaning you're going to be seeing a lot of me and I of you and neither one of us will be seeing anyone else."

"Why, Gale, your words move me so. I'm," she laughed, "overcome."

"Minx," he laughed as he kissed her and stole her breath away. After a very long time, he finally pulled away from her. "Why don't we get dressed and get out of here. I want to see you in my place," he said firmly. He got up and walked confidently across the room to their clothes. For a moment, she was so stunned with looking at him that it took a while for his words to sink in.

"But we can't," she told him when her brain started to work in some capacity again. "They locked us in."

His grin was fast and like lightning. He fiddled in his pocket and took out something that shone in the light of the room. Her eye brows rose as she saw he was holding one of her hair pins. He shrugged. "So I took a souvenir… and this souvenir can get us out of here."

He laughed at the stunned look on her face before he threw her sweater to her. "We could have gotten out of here the whole time?

"Yep," he told her. "But I didn't want to be anywhere else." His eyes bored into hers from behind their lenses and the angry retort she was preparing died on her tongue. She laughed and got dressed.

11111

"So… do you think they are still alive in there?" Katniss whispered as Peeta let them into their apartment.

He laughed. "Well, if not, my money's on Madge."

"Peeta!" she said sharply and punched him on the arm.

He laughed as he rubbed the spot where she hit him and turned on the lights. Not a sound was coming from down the hall. "Let's go see," he told her with a mischievous grin as they walked down the hall. When he jiggled the handle to the room he noticed it was unlocked. "That's weird," he said as the door swung open.

Katniss gasped. As they looked inside, they saw some of his paintings on the floor, the bed was a rumpled mess and buttons scattered across the floor with Gale's ripped shirt. "What in the-?" Katniss asked in a strangled sort of a voice. Both their eyes caught the flash of color on a plain white canvas propped against the wall. It simply said, "Thanks."

"You mean to tell me that they-" again Katniss's voice cut off and her face turned beet red.

Peeta's head fell back as he let out a boom of laughter. Then he hugged his wife to him. "Peeta, you can't possibly think that means what I think it means?"

He laughed again and then kissed her soundly. "Yes, yes I do. And you know what else," he said with his eyes bright on hers. "I think we should take a page from their book."

She shook her head. "Uh-uh, not here, not… Oh my god."

He laughed again as he swung her up in his arms. "No, not here," he agreed and carried her out… but not towards the bedroom. "I was thinking of making a different kind of bun," he whispered against her ear as he went into the kitchen. Her laughter, which was rare, rang out and was silenced by a long moan.

*Fin*

**Author's Note**- _I hope you enjoyed the story! Please leave me a review and tell me what you thought!_


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